A bit of an Adventure
by meganwolff
Summary: This is my take on how Tosh started working for Torchwood, and includes the events from Doctor Who S1, Aliens of London. Tosh/Owen friendship. No spoilers for S2. Ianto probably shouldn't be in this fic according to timelines, but never mind. Enjoy!


Toshiko Sato walked slowly through the hectic streets of Central London. It was a cold and dark December afternoon, but there was still a busy hustle of Christmas shoppers. Toshiko sat down on an empty bench, stopping to think. She was so frustrated. Ever since she had started work at the government scientific think-tank over a year ago, she just felt that she wasn't fulfilling her potential. The work was tiring, but it wasn't overtaxing on her brain. But there wasn't anything better on offer. She had looked long and hard but with no result.

A man sat down on the other side of the bench. Toshiko hardly noticed him; she just stared at the ground, thinking about how dull her Christmas was going to be, with no one to share it with.

"Toshiko Sato, unless I'm very much mistaken, which to be honest, doesn't happen much."

The American accent brought Toshiko back to reality with a jolt, and she looked round. "Yes, and who are you?"

"Captain Jack Harkness."

"And can I ask why, Captain Jack Harkness, you know who I am?"

"Well that's a long story, and I will tell it all to you when you come and have a drink with my colleagues."

When you come and have a drink…he was so sure that she was going to go with him. Toshiko pondered on this thought.

"You're wondering why I'm so certain that you'll come with me." She nodded. "I know you want more out of your work, you want to work more intensely and you love solving scientific problems. If you come with me all that will be fulfilled. So that's why I'm absolutely one hundred percent certain you'll come with me. "

From that moment on Toshiko was really interested in Captain Jack Harkness. He offered her a chance to fulfil her dreams, and she wasn't going to throw it away.

"So when are we having that drink?"

Smiling cheekily, Jack said "What about tomorrow, 4pm, at the Red Dragon?"

"See you tomorrow then." But he had already walked off into the crowds of people on a nearby main street.

Toshiko took out a small notebook, and wrote some notes, thinking how stupid she had been not to look at him in closer detail:

Captain Jack Harkness

American Accent

Original clothing style which I'd describe as 'period military'

Hi-tech looking earpiece

Shape that looked suspiciously like a gun concealed in his right pocket

Putting away the notebook, Toshiko walked quickly back to her small flat. Her heart was beating fast; she was full of adrenalin for her first big challenge. She had less than twenty four hours to find out as much as possible about this Captain Jack Harkness, and she had a feeling that it wasn't going to be easy.

Toshiko looked blearily at her watch. 2pm. She had spent over twelve hours at her computer, yet she was still smiling. She had been in her element, using various computer programmes that she had written to find out information on this Harkness man. The few clues she had were beginning to fit together, and she was getting really excited.

Stopping nervously at the door of the Red Dragon, Toshiko checked her watch. Four o'clock on the dot. Clutching a pile of papers tightly she went inside, looking around for Captain Jack Harkness, but there was no sign of him.

"'Scuse me, are you Toshiko Sato by any chance?"

The person talking was a man, with brown hair and a slightly arrogant posture. He was wearing jeans and a leather jacket.

"I'm guessing you're Doctor Owen Harper then," Toshiko said.

"Our table's just through here," Owen said, or well she assumed that it was Owen as he hadn't denied her statement. He led her through into a smaller room, with only one occupied table. Jack was sitting there along with another man and woman.

"How much have you told her Jack, 'cause she knew my name," Owen said, looking slightly annoyed, "What happens if she decided not to turn up, she'd have our names and whatever else you decided to tell her for some bloody reason..."

"I told her nothing but my name," said Jack simply.

"Bloody hell. That's impressive," said Owen, looking stunned. "How the hell did you manage to find out my name? And what else do you know"

"I know that you are Torchwood, and you are an independent organisation that works on catching aliens." She explained everything that she knew to them; all their names, jobs and famous cases of Torchwood. Toshiko looked round, and smiled slightly at the four looks of absolute shock staring at her. Well, three, Jack just smiled slightly, like he had been right all along.

"See, I told you that I thought she was good. Not just good. Amazing." Jack nodded his head slightly at Owen, who stuck his hands in his pockets and a few seconds later handed over a twenty pound note, muttering under his breath.

"I bet him twenty quid that you wouldn't know we're called Torchwood," Owen explained.

"Shouldn't you know by now not to bet on anything with Jack?" said Suzie, "You've never won!"

"Well, it was worth a try," said Owen.

"Anyway, back on topic, how do you feel on joining us? Torchwood. We are the top; you don't get any better than this."

"Well I couldn't say no then, could I?!" Toshiko was secretly delighted, but opted for the cool and casual look, not wanting to appear desperate. "But Torchwood's in Cardiff and I don't have a flat there."

"No problem," said Jack, "You can stay with one of us for a few weeks until you get a flat. We can help you move your stuff tomorrow."

The next day the Torchwood team appeared promptly at 10am to help Toshiko pack and take all her belongings to Cardiff. Toshiko noticed that Owen was a lazy arse, preferring to read her newspaper than help. Suzie wasn't much better, spending most of the day looking through all her stuff, and Jack was extremely bossy and not very helpful. Ianto however spend the day methodically packing Toshiko's stuff into the van very neatly, and Toshiko also noted that he made brilliant coffee. She was extremely grateful for Ianto's help, and that evening she left her life in London for a new and exciting life in Wales.

The next few weeks passed in a blur. Toshiko stayed at Owen's flat for a few weeks while she was looking at flats to buy, and the two of them become good friends. Owen decided one day to call Toshiko 'Tosh' and the name stuck. Tosh secretly loved this nickname, mainly because Owen chose it, and she had a soft spot for him.

One day, a few months after she had started, nothing much was happening. Tosh and Owen were chatting over coffee; the others were nowhere to be seen. Suzie had gone to investigate a small case and Ianto and Jack were both in the Hub, but were somewhere else.

"I bet that if we swapped jobs then I would be better than you." Owen grinned cheekily at Tosh, who made a silly face.

"I don't think so Owen. I am trained in Medicine as well as computing and science, whereas you are a Doctor, so there's no competition."

"Well there's only one way to find out, isn't there?! One day, we swap jobs."

Tosh started choking on her coffee, and Owen hastily patted her on the back,

"You are joking Owen?"

"Nope. I'm being totally serious."

"I'm not so sure…I mean, we do have a big responsibility, and if anything went wrong…"

"Tosh, it will be fine. I'm a legend with computers, I can make your computer sing 'Jingle Bells' to you when you press the enter key…"

"Fine!" Smiling, she gave in. She couldn't help agreeing. "But I'm still sure that I will beat you by miles!"

"So, let's choose a date!"

Tosh turned to her computer. "Leave it to me, or rather, my computer." She pressed some keys on her keyboard, and a minute later turned back to Owen. "I've set up a programme to randomly choose a date between tomorrow and 6 months from now."

Owen moved in closer to the screen, squinting. "It hasn't worked, I can't see any date."

"But that's the whole point. It will pop up on the screens the day before so we know the day."

"But…I want to know now!"

"Well we don't want you to be too prepared now, do we?!" Tosh grinned.

"Damn, you're too bloody clever Miss Sato!"

Jack stuck his head out his office. "Hey Guys, what you up to?"

"Nothing," replied Tosh and Owen in unison.

"Nothing…yeah right! But we have a Weevil on the loose in Splott. So we leave in two minutes, Tosh you need to track it. Owen, get some stun guns. Now!"

Owen and Tosh got up hastily, the competition out of their minds.

For the next few days Owen and Tosh would nervously check the computer for any signs of a warning about their competition. A week passed, but with no warning, and Owen asked Tosh if she was sure that she actually wrote a programme.

"I mean, I could see your hands typing on your keyboard, but for all I know, this could be a big wind up."

Tosh eventually managed to assure him that there was a programme, but as the weeks passed they both managed to forget about it.

One summer morning Tosh arrived at the Hub early. It was before nine in the morning, but she had been woken up by the sun streaming into her room, and so she had decided to get up early. She was also desperate to try and decipher an alien letter that they had found the week before, she was sure she was going to crack the code any time soon. Entering the Hub she was greeted by Ianto with a steaming mug of coffee, and after shouting a "Good morning" to Jack she headed straight over to her desk.

Sitting down, she groaned. A message had just popped up onto the screen:

'Announcement! Tomorrow is the 'Swap Job' day at last! Tosh, your amazing programming skills have just been confirmed! This message is set to pop-up on all computers in the vicinity.'

She sighed; she had forgotten that she had set it up so that Owen would definitely see it. So there was no way out now. But, on the plus side, there was no way that Owen could crack the alien code, so unless she mucked up big time with an autopsy or something, then she would win.

Owen arrived five minutes later. "Look at your computer," shouted Tosh.

"And good morning to you too Tosh. So much for a hello…oh my god. I had totally forgotten about this." There was a long silence. Owen finally broke it. "Well, you're going down tomorrow Sato." However his face told a different story, a kind of "Oh shit, you're doing code work at the moment. That's it, I'm finished!" story.

Tosh laughed. "Whatever gave you that idea Harper?!"

"I recon it's going to be a pretty even match, as long as you move your ass Owen." The American accent rang through the Hub. Tosh and Owen looked up. Jack was standing one level up, outside his office.

"Are you okay with it?" Tosh asked nervously.

"Yeah, I think it'll do you some good to try something different for once."

Tosh and Owen looked relieved. "Thank god for that. I thought we were in deep shit," said Owen.

"Fancy a job swap day too Ianto?" Jack grinned.

"Oh no," Ianto looked horrified, "I mean, I would do great, but you would never be able to make acceptable coffee. I wouldn't be able to cope."

The next day was blisteringly hot and still. Tosh arrived at the Hub at her usual time, which was before Suzie and Owen but after Ianto. As for Jack, he didn't count as he never seemed to leave. And she sometimes wondered whether Ianto always left too… She sat down at Owen's desk, looking longingly over at hers. It looked so inviting to her, with her Rubik's Cube, various interesting pieces of alien technology, a pile of books and her many computer screens. Owen's desk included his autopsy gloves, a few medical books, pictures of Owen with various women and a bottle of alien drink which looked deadly. She sighed. At least it was only for a day.

By the time Owen arrived Tosh had already checked to see if there were an autopsies needed done (luckily for her, there weren't) and was a good way through his mountain of paperwork perched precariously on the edge of his desk.

"What kept you, it's nearly ten o'clock!"

"I was erm…mentally preparing myself for the day!"

Lunch time was approaching and Ianto ordered a Chinese carryout for the team, waiting in the Tourist information centre to receive it. Tosh was looking forward to a well earned break, doing Owen's paperwork was neither exciting nor rewarding, but she knew he'd not been having a laugh trying to do her code work. He was sitting at her desk, with his head in his hands, muttering to himself. She looked over at Susie, who glanced over at Owen and rolled her eyes. Tosh smiled, agreeing, Owen was such a typical guy. He mucked around normally, but give him some kind of contest and he became concentrated and competitive.

Suddenly some alarms on Tosh's desk started going off. Owen jumped, and Susie giggled loudly at him. Tosh looked anxiously over, she was itching to run over and find out for herself.

"Bloody hell!" Owen turned white. "Guys, get over here, now!" Tosh, Suzie and Jack rushed over to him. "Look at this." He pressed some buttons and a video started. There was what seemed to be an alien spaceship, flying haphazardly through the air.

"Oh. My. God." The others turned to look at Tosh. "That's London."

"Look what it does next. Crashes right through the side of Big Ben and into the Thames."

And they all watched as it did. Tosh would usually have pointed out how the building was technically called St. Stephen's Tower, the bell was called Big Ben, but she resisted. Very sensibly.

"Oh well." Jack didn't seem too upset.

"A space ship crashes in London and that's all you can say?" Susie was sceptical.

"Well, you humans had to find out about aliens sometime. That was long overdue."

"Are we going to do anything? Nice as it is to sit here and chat."

"Owen, Torchwood One will deal with it. It's nothing to do with us. We do rift work."

"But it's important. We can't just sit here and do nothing. I mean, it could be a new kind of alien."

Jack seemed to think about it for a minute. "The right kind of Doctor…" he muttered to himself so quietly that Tosh wondered if she was the only person to have heard it. He started walking up to the boardroom. "Actually, I've changed my mind. I'm off to speak to Torchwood One, U.N.I.T. and the P.M. Tosh; you may be going on a trip to London."

Jack shouted down from outside the Boardroom about an hour later. "Guys get up here, now. We need to talk. And Ianto, bring up the Chicken Chow Mein, I'm starving." The others had been eating their lunch, but Tosh hadn't eaten much. She was extremely nervous, for once. She had no idea what Jack had planned, but she wasn't sure at all whether she was going to like the idea.

Twenty minutes later Tosh, Jack and Owen were leaving the Hub, and getting into the SUV. Owen was driving, and Jack was giving Tosh some instructions. "You need to remember anything; I want a full report when I get back. You'll do fine if you keep your head."

And that was that. They sat the rest of the journey in silence, except for Jack insulting U.N.I.T. at every opportunity.

"There's no need to be sitting here at a red light! I told them to park the helicopter on the Millennium Centre Roof, and they say that it would cause too much panic. There's an alien spaceship in London, and they say people will worry about a helicopter on the roof?!"

They arrived at the airfield ten minutes later, and after showing I.D. at the gate Owen drove right along to the Helipad. As soon as he had cut the engine, a man opened the back door. "Welcome, Doctor Sato. Your helicopter is just over here."

"Thanks. I'll be over in just a minute."

"Whenever you're ready. Well, within reason." Jack got out, and started talking to the man, leaving Owen and Tosh in the SUV.

"I'm so sorry Owen. This should have been your job."

"Look Tosh, don't worry about it. Chill. There is no way U.N.I.T. would have accepted me to do it anyway, they know what a lazy bugger I am; after all, I trained in London."

"Thanks Owen. It's good to know you can actually be nice if you try."

He gave her a playful punch. Jack opened the car door. "The people of the United Kingdom are all sitting waiting for the results of your study of this alien, no more chatting."

Tosh waved a good-bye as she took off in the helicopter. She tried to relax, but it proved hard as the helicopter was travelling so fast, and it wasn't a very comfortable ride. She was sitting in a helicopter travelling to London, as she was Dr Toshiko Sato, the pathologist going to study the alien body. What a crazy day it had been. And she had no idea why Jack was so keen to have one of his Torchwood Three team doing the job. Torchwood One was better staffed, and much _much _bigger. She would have put it down to rivalry between the two braches of Torchwood, but she just had a feeling that there was something more to it than that.

Arriving in London, she was whisked into Albion Hospital. Putting on her white coat, she was taken along Military lined corridors and into a room that looked like an operating room. There to greet her was an important looking military man.

"Doctor Sato?"

"Hello."

"The body's here." He gestured behind him. "Do whatever you can to identify it; I need to know if it is an alien, or a fake. That is of the most importance. But I need the body left reasonably intact. Hopefully we'll find the best alien expert, and he'll identify it properly for us. "

"Who's that?" asked Tosh, puzzled. Surely that would be a member of Torchwood, she even considered Jack for a moment. But she was wrong.

"The Doctor is his name. But anyway, no time to lose, I'll leave you now to get on with your investigations. General Asquith will be over shortly." He left the room, leaving Tosh by herself.

She walked over to where the body was lying, and gasped. It was the body of what looked like a pig. Wearing a bright orange space suit. It didn't look alien. But then again, it definitely didn't look normal either. She did some tests on the body, and the x-rays were very informative. The x-rays showed wiring that she had never seen before, it was definitely alien. But on the outside it just looked like a pig from earth. She was also worried. She had heard rumours that no one had seen the Prime Minister. Shouldn't he be addressing the country, and the problem?

While doing the tests she felt so alone, the room was completely silent, and she just wished that she was there with the whole Torchwood team. She could easily imagine Jack pacing the room, shouting out orders to the team. Suzie suggesting something, to which Owen would reply with a sarcastic comment. Ianto would be making coffee, and then writing down notes for the team. She would be analysing silently, and giving her opinion when necessary.

When she was finished, she covered the pig with a cloth, it made her slightly nervous having it lie there, she didn't much like doing investigations without the team.

General Asquith arrived soon after, with two military men accompanying. "Let's have a look then," he ordered. Tosh pulled the cloth covering the pig back, to reveal the pig.

"Good God. That's real? It's not a hoax or a dummy, or a…?" Tosh shook her head.

"I've x-rayed the skull. It's wired up inside like nothing I've ever seen before. No one could make this up."

"We've got experts being flown in. Until they arrive… get that out of sight." Tosh nodded. She did not like this Asquith at all. He didn't seem right. All her training at Torchwood made her more aware of when something was wrong, and there was definitely something wrong with the whole situation. But there was nothing she could do. Here she was just a pathologist, not an alien fighting member of Torchwood. She covered the alien again.

The General started to leave. Tosh gave in; she couldn't just be silent and do nothing. She ran after him. "Excuse me Sir!" she said, reasonably loudly for her. He stopped and turned to face her.

"I know it's a state of emergency and there's a lot of rumour flying around, but is it true, what they're saying? About the prime minister?" He ignored her completely, walking off along the corridor with his men.

"What a charming man," she muttered to herself, wandering back into the room with the alien. She just wandered around the room, being at a loss at what to do until the 'experts' arrived.

She was wondering how on earth to solve the problem of how the pig got there, and why it was there when she heard a strange sound. She didn't recognise it, and it didn't sound like anything she had heard in a hospital before.

Tosh decided to stop worrying about strange noises and write down her observations so far, and sat down at a desk in the room. She decided to make a second copy to take back to Jack. She began to write. Suddenly she heard a thumping noise. She paused for a moment, but deciding that it must have been her imagination, she began to write again. Then she heard it again, and looked round uneasily. It was repeating itself over and over again. And it was coming from where the alien lay.

She stood up, and quietly walked towards the door of the cupboard. Reaching into her pocket, she only just managed to stop herself swearing when she realised that she was unarmed. The thumping became even more frantic. Tosh was momentarily paralysed, at a loss of what to do. Then she made a quick decision, and pulled open the door. She screamed. The alien was alive. This couldn't be happening. It was supposed to be dead. Unless it had never been dead in the first place…

The alien managed to open the drawer even wider, and it hit Tosh on the head, making her fly backwards. She cowered in a corner, touching her head. It was bleeding. But that didn't matter. She looked desperately round. Where had it gone? Suddenly the room was flung open, and a man entered. He wore a worn leather jacket, and had short dark hair. He ran to her side, and held her hands.

"My God – it's still alive," she whispered, "I swear it was dead."

"Coma – shock – hibernation – anything. What does it look like?" He had a distinctly northern accent. The alien made a quiet noise, and he whirled around. "It's still here."

He beckoned a soldier into the room, and walked quietly forward, looking for the source of the sound. He suddenly dropped down to he knees, and peered behind the desk.

"Hello!"

The pig squealed, Tosh assumed in terror, and started to run across the room. She realised how traumatising the whole ordeal must have been for the small creature, and felt a pang of sympathy for it. The soldier reached for his gun.

"Don't shoot!" The man shouted, urgently.

The pig ran out into the corridor, and so did the mystery man. Tosh followed. She was in time to see a tense soldier shoot it before the man could stop him.

"What did you do that for? It was scared!" The man looked furious. The soldier looked in alarm from him to the pig. The man crouched down to look at the pig.

"It was scared." He stroked the pig, and seconds later it was dead. Tosh felt like crying. She agreed with the man. It had been scared, it didn't deserve to die.

"It was scared." The man stood up slowly, picked up the alien and walked off.

"Excuse me, what's your name?" Tosh rushed after him.

"I'm the Doctor."

Somehow she had known all along it was him. "People were saying that you are the biggest alien expert, so what exactly happened to it?"

Back in the lab, the Doctor explained his theory.

"I just assumed it was an alien. But you're saying it's an ordinary pig? From Earth?"

"More like a mermaid. Victorian showmen used to draw the crowds by taking the skull of a cat and gluing it to a fish and calling it a mermaid. Now, someone's taken a pig, opened up it's brain, stuck bits on... then they strapped it in that ship and made it dive bomb. It must've been terrified. They've taken this animal and turned it into a joke."

"So it's a fake. A pretend. Like the mermaid. But the technology augmenting its brain... it's like nothing on Earth. It's alien. Aliens are faking aliens. But why would they do that...?"

She turned to face the Doctor, but he had vanished.

"Doctor?"

She hurried out the room after him, looking up and down the long corridor. But he was nowhere to be seen.

"Doctor?"

She heard that strange noise again, getting fainter and fainter. She walked back into the room, crestfallen. She felt so stupid. She had been talking to what seemed to have been an alien expert, and she hadn't even asked him to go and speak to Jack. He could have been a huge asset to Torchwood, and she had been too wrapped up in the case to think of the long-term.

The next day she walked into the Hub, exhausted. That morning she went into the Boardroom for a meeting with Jack. Ianto handed Tosh a large mug of steaming coffee before he left, and she thanked him appreciatively. It was just what she needed. "Right, let's get started," said Jack as he walked into the room. "Tosh, give me an account of the whole escapade." And so she did.

"We need to find this Doctor. We absolutely have to. He'd be the best asset we could get."

"No."

"What?!" Tosh was alarmed and confused. "But I don't see why not!" There was no reason that they _couldn't_ find him. There was no reason that they _shouldn't_ find him.

"Just trust me on this one Tosh. I have my reasons. And they are very good reasons. He's a good person. But we cannot contact him in any way, it would have devastating consequences. Okay?" She nodded glumly. He gave her a pat on the back. "But good idea. I'd recruit him if I could. C'mon. Let's get the others in for a team meeting."

As Owen came in he smiled at Tosh. "I heard you had a bit of an adventure."

"Yeah, it was...erm…interesting. But I'm not willing to do it again. And I heard that you fell asleep trying to solve the code. So I think I've won."

"Fine, just this once Toshiko Sato, I'll admit it, you've won."

She grinned. "I never thought I'd see the day, Harper."

"Has that made all that hard work worthwhile then?"

"Yup it certainly has." And she meant it.


End file.
